On 10 November, Waze and Garmin started rolling out cyclist alerts in the Waze navigation app on Android and iOS. When a cyclist with a Garmin device chooses to share their ride, drivers nearby get a short alert to slow down and look out. No new hardware is involved: the feature connects a bike computer and a navigation app that people already use.
What happened
For cyclists, it starts on the bike. Riders turn on Garmin's LiveTrack feature, which shares their live location, on a Garmin Edge bike computer or a Garmin smartwatch. They can then choose to appear in Waze as a moving icon.
For drivers, when a cyclist who has opted in is nearby, Waze shows an alert reminding the driver to slow down and stay aware, as 9to5Google reports.
According to Waze, the feature is built around three limits:
- Opt-in. Only cyclists who choose to appear are shown.
- No rider details. Drivers see only a temporary alert that a cyclist is nearby, with no details about the rider or their route.
- Temporary. The alerts stop automatically when the rider ends the ride on their Garmin.
Waze describes the rollout as global. No list of countries has been published.
What it shows
Many new features add something: a new device, a new sensor, a new app. This one connects two things that already existed. The Garmin knows where the rider is, and Waze knows where the driver is. Linking them, for a narrow purpose and a short time, gives drivers and cyclists something neither product offered on its own.
Connecting existing technology like this may be an underexplored way to improve everyday experiences. Phones, watches, cars, home devices and public services each hold useful signals, but they rarely share them with each other. Many combinations that could help people have probably not been tried, or even thought of, yet.
Two purely hypothetical examples of the questions this raises:
- Could a smoke alarm alert a trusted neighbor's phone, only while the owner is away and only if both have agreed?
- Could a wheelchair user's phone tell the next bus that the ramp will be needed, before it reaches the stop?
Where AI comes in
Building connections like these usually means working across several systems, often from different companies, and that limits how many ideas get tried. Our expectation is that AI-assisted programming, where AI tools help people write and test code, will make this kind of exploration easier, so that small teams can take on bigger, more ambitious projects, and try several ideas at once rather than one at a time.
The limits in the Waze feature also show what such connections depend on: people choosing to take part, and sharing only the data a task needs, for only as long as it is needed. The same applies when testing AI with people, as we wrote in why AI pilots still need privacy checks.
What you can do
If you ride with a Garmin Edge or a Garmin smartwatch, you can turn on LiveTrack and choose to appear in Waze once the feature reaches you. If you drive with Waze, there is nothing to set up.
If you build products or services, the question this feature raises is a simple one: what could the devices people already use do together? Technology that adapts to people, rather than the other way around, is part of our philosophy.